Request for ammunition for tanks and tactical vehicles for Israel despite Biden’s earlier pause on bombs during Rafah attack.
The Biden administration has told Congress it plans to send a $1 billion military aid package to Israel, according to media reports, despite U.S. opposition to a full-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. and concerns about rising civilian deaths.
The US State Department on Tuesday transferred the package to the congressional review process, Reuters news agency reported, citing two unnamed US officials.
The package, which has not yet been approved, includes about $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortars, congressional aides told the Associated Press news agency.
The request for approval for the transfer of lethal weapons comes a week after President Joe Biden suspended a single shipment of bombs due to concerns about Israel’s offensive on Rafah, on the southern tip of Gaza, where the United Nations says About half a million displaced people fled.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said the new package “is being presented as the US’ long-term commitment to supplying weapons to Israel.”
“We were told this is something that has been under consideration since mid-spring. It could take many months, up to three years, to supply all of these weapons to Israel,” he said.
“But again, it’s a long-term commitment. This is how it is being presented. This is not necessarily related to what is happening now [in Gaza].”
A recent State Department report concluded that Israeli forces likely used US-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law. However, it failed to identify violations that would end Washington’s continued military aid.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said on Wednesday that the Israeli army had intensified its land and air attacks on Rafah and Jabalia in the north of the territory.
“In the last few hours, we have registered more victims in the central areas of Gaza City. Ten Palestinians were killed in the city’s Sabra neighborhood after a UN-run clinic was targeted by Israeli jets,” he said.
Nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since May 6, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a statement on Tuesday. Another 100,000 people were evacuated from the north in the face of new violent attacks.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 35,173 people have been killed and 79,061 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October.
Rafah invasion
Biden said last week that he had delayed a shipment of 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel due to concerns they could be used for the Rafah invasion.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that the U.S. would continue to provide military assistance from a $26 billion supplemental funding bill passed last month, but paused the bombs because “We don’t believe they should be launched in densely populated cities.” ”.
The chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Relations committees review major foreign arms deals.
Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to invade Rafah without safeguards for civilians, seven months after the start of a war that devastated Gaza.
His support for Israel in the war against Hamas has emerged as a political liability for the president, especially among young Democrats, who is running for re-election this year.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Tuesday that over the past day it had struck more than 100 targets in the Gaza Strip and continued to carry out military operations in the eastern part of the city of Rafah and the area near the port of Rafah.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
